It’s been more than a month since Sarah Sullivan posted her extremely powerful account of sexual assault by a prominent figure in swing dancing. During that time I’ve been largely impressed by the response. In contrast to the quenelle debacle, it seemed that the issues of sexual assault and women’s rights were more globally acknowledged and supported. For once I got to see what I always hope to see and never do: the global swing dancing community is actually doing better than mainstream society. I love the community, but I am constantly disappointed to discover that there is just as much ignorance, selfishness, and hate represented in it as there is elsewhere in the world. Mostly the response to Sarah’s and other survivors’ accounts has given me a bit more hope. That said, there was a fair amount of inappropriate questioning, overvaluing the career of the accused with respect to the safety and sanity of his survivors, and victim blaming. There was one element I saw brought up again and again, and I’d like to address it. That element is the concept of presumption of innocence, frequently packaged as “innocent until proven guilty.”